Thursday, 25 June 2015

#45: Spectral Stalkers

SPECTRAL STALKERS

Peter Darvill-Evans

Reviewed by Mark Lain

At face value
this book has little appeal. By that I mean that its cover does it no favours
and is amongst the worst FF covers ever: a purple gargoyle is confronting a
green humanoid bug in a wizard’s hat whilst gold-coloured sheep-grubs graze in
a pasture with a Germanic fairytale castle standing on a cliff-face in the
background – look a little harder and you’ll see a vague spectral outline
behind garish yellow splatter-letters announcing this to be “Spectral
Stalkers”. Oh dear, this does not look promising. What madness is this?

Open the
book, however, and the interior seems rather more interesting – a colour map of
a maze with a poem, Tony Hough artwork depicting a vast array of material from
Medieval Fantasy through to what seems to be Sci-Fi, very long paragraphs
(almost always at least half a page in length), and loads of creatures that we
have hitherto never heard of in FF. Intriguing enough to want to give it a go
I’d say. After all, FF #28 Phantoms Of
Fear has an abysmal cover but is well worth reading/playing, so hopefully
we are in for a pleasant surprise with Spectral
Stalkers too. And indeed we are!

This book is
without doubt one of the most high-concept and hugely inventive of all the FF
series. YOU begin by having your fortune read (Darvill-Evans always loves to
use the “start in the middle of something” approach to throw you straight into
the action, rather than providing a context-setting intro) which does not bode
well for you as you draw a blank card that does not actually exist in the deck
and the fortune-teller tells you to prepare yourself for a destiny that does
not lie “anywhere in this world”. Dark clouds then ominously approach and you
encounter a wounded giant human lacewing thing that gives you a sphere and
tells you to “beware the Spectral Stalkers”. What then follows is a truly
bizarre trip through Darvill-Evans’ fertile imagination starting with a visit
to the Library In Limbo (with its bespectacled Dragon receptionist), followed
by numerous dimensions within the Macrocosmos that the Aleph (the ball the
dying lacewing gave you) contains. The Aleph essentially contains all that has
ever and will ever exist, meaning that possession of it gives the holder total
power over absolutely everything, something the baddie of the piece (the
Archmage Globus) wants so he has sent out the Spectral Stalkers of the title to
track it down and bring it to him. YOU need to get to Globus and stop him from
becoming Overlord of Everything. And that is the plot in a nutshell: avoid the
Spectral Stalkers, find Globus, defeat him, save the Multiverse, return home to
Khul and live happily ever after. Unusually simple for a book in the quite
densely-plotted 40s part of the series, but what really carries this one
through is the variety of worlds/dimensions that you can find on the way. It
is, of course, possible to cut to the chase by going straight to the Ziggurat
World where Globus lives (and very unusually you can still win by doing this)
but you will miss out on all the fun and not really see the point of how the
Aleph works and the huge impact it has on this adventure. Plus it will seem
very short too!

The Aleph
itself uses (for the most part) two mechanics to determine how the trip
progresses. The less common one is effectively your desire influencing it (Do
you want to go home to Neuburg? Do you want to get straight to the point and go
to the Ziggurat World? Will you place yourself at the mercy of the Aleph? Do
you want someone to explain what all the stuff you’ve collected might be for?)
but, more often than not, you move from one place to the next by rolling a
dice. An even number sends you one way, an odd number another. This then opens
out further along where any number from 1 to 6 can send you off in any of six
possible directions. Which brings us to the first important feature of this
book: there is no true path and it would be grossly unfair if there was one
given that you have very limited control over your dimensional route, instead
you can go in basically any direction and still have a chance of victory. Plus,
even in the slightly more linear final section on the Ziggurat World there are
still two routes through, both of which can lead to winning. It’s always nice
to be given freedom to explore in gamebooks rather than analysing the map to
find the author’s one true path and this is a welcome approach. Conversely,
this also means that there are no essential items or information to find -
although most items will make it a bit easier for you, you will not necessarily
fail without any of them. Furthermore, the randomised nature of how the Aleph
works means that no two playthroughs are ever likely to be the same and with 14
worlds to visit (including the Ziggurat World) there must be thousands of
possible different routes through. This is clearly a very unique gamebook.

Another
feature of this book is that it is very short on combats (assuming you do not
decide to kill everything you meet, of course, as the option is there if you
want to take it) and it is even possible to complete it without a single fight
and/or by curtailing many of the fights if you do get into them. The idea of
putting the overall concept over the tradition of fighting being essential to
role-play is a mixed-bag and, on the one hand it is a refreshing change that
makes you focus more on the ideas being presented, but it can make this feel
like it isn’t really FIGHTING Fantasy as such. Whichever way you look at it,
it’s different and new ideas were needed by the 45th book in the
series so it is still a good thing. In a similar vein, the final showdown with
Globus involves no combat at all, instead you need to use your cunning to
defeat him based on a piece of detail that you can pick up along the way. Of
course, you can still stumble across the solution without knowing the info by
just picking the right option so, again, this can be completed whether you find
the info or not.

Equally, this
is one of those rare FFs that can genuinely be beaten even with rock-bottom
starting stats. The lack of combats helps this a lot, although I would suggest
that a low Skill could cause you more of a problem if you take a more perilous
route on the Ziggurat World as there are several Skill tests (and some combined
Skill+Stamina tests that can involve rolling six or even seven dice in
logically unlikely to be survivable moments) on certain paths at that stage.
There are, however, very few Luck tests which also helps your progress. There
are even quite a few bonuses to be had to your Skill, Stamina, and Luck which
will make it even easier for you, especially if you have a weaker character. As
with all later books, we have a new stat in the form of Trail, but it is
unlikely to really cause you any problems unless you are taking the psychotic
approach. It starts at zero and only increases if you draw attention to
yourself too much (which makes sense as you start to leave a trail of where you
have been) and testing it involves rolling THREE dice, a test that you only
fail by rolling UNDER your Trail, which means that failing a Trail test is
quite an unfortunate achievement. If you do fail, the Spectral Stalkers will
get you and take you to the end of the book (rather than killing you) where you
have as much chance of still winning as if you had not fallen foul of them. I’m
not sure how I feel about this, but it seems to be a missed opportunity to
scupper careless players – any sighting of the Stalkers can give you a frisson
of terror, but once you know that they don’t do anything to you, you kind of
stop being bothered about them. Globus wants the Aleph, not you - you just
happen to be its custodian right now, so in that sense it just about works.
Generally, Trail does not really add much, but it does allow the Stalkers to
play a recurring role and also adds a slight element of fate to the
proceedings.

It is fairly
obvious then that this is an easy book to complete (it may initially seem harsh
that you only start with 2 Provisions but that is hardly a problem either),
although there are individually challenging moments to add meat even though
they don’t really have any bearing on your ultimate fate. In particular, the
Maze World is almost impossible to get through without having all seven Sigils
which are other spheres (and one wheel arch that for some reason Elves are
afraid of) that are scattered about various dimensions. Given the completely
randomised nature of your route it is unlikely that you will find them all,
plus there is a continuity error in the Maze where you can be sent to the wrong
linking section on at least two occasions, so this part is not a huge success.
Also, the human chess game requires a lot of concentration and analysis of the
two-page board and rules to get right, not that the outcome matters much
overall so, again, this is a missed chance to add a bit of difficulty. Indeed,
many of the worlds you visit yield very little in terms of useful equipment,
most are just cameos to show the sheer enormity of the Aleph’s infinite
possibilities and also the vastness of Darvill-Evans’ invention.

What really
makes this book work so well and come alive is the various dimensions that
range from fantasy to Sci-Fi:

Neuburg
400 years into the future – which seems just like Neuburg now and basically
involves you avoiding a potential murdering by an unscrupulous innkeeper

A
world where skeletal beings are fighting a war that you get caught in the
middle of

A
dune planet with a Golem problem

A
human chess game being played so that the giant girl being that is playing can
avoid being forced to get pulled by her opponent giant boy being

A
vampire circus (with a main protagonist with a rather transparent anagram name)

A
futuristic alien specimen hunter’s ship (where Robbie The Robot can be shorted-out
with a fire extinguisher)

A
world where funny little things called Felitis seem to think you’re their God
or something

A
redneck Elf witch-hunt world

A
world with giant shape-changing hunters

The
home of a talking musical instrument that is being ruled by evil pig beings
called Zwinians

An
eerie haunted Toy Museum/Castle world

A
mapmaker’s Sci-Fi world (who looks like Davros)

The
complicated Maze World mentioned above (although it’s worth negotiating if only
to meet the hilariously bizarre Logic Dog)

And
the linear Ziggurat World where Globus has his lair

Some of these
are more fleshed-out than others whilst some just form very brief cameos and
some can just be avoided completely in terms of getting to the end, but the
enjoyment is to be had in exploring each of them to see what weird and
wonderful ideas are in this book. The longest and most exploited by a long way
is the Ziggurat World which (whilst it should be big as it’s the climax of the
piece) is a bit of a pity as it’s easily the least interesting of the bunch.
The Crystal Garden is curious and the narcissistic talking doorway is a laugh,
but too much time is taken up on climbing hills and dealing with a couple of
alien races that live there for this to be interesting compared to the rest.
Other than this one, all the other possible dimensions/worlds are very imaginative
and the world-hopping section of the story mixes Dr Who motifs with Terry Gilliam’s films and the Quantum Leap idea of body-swapping to
create a really varied, intriguing and entertaining adventure experience.

In spite of
its totally off-the-wall nature, this book still reads like a Peter
Darvill-Evans adventure. It is “set” (or at least it starts and ends) in
Neuburg in Khul which was the setting for PD-E’s first FF (#25 Beneath Nightmare Castle) and his repeatedly occurring fixation
for acid and toxins comes back again here, particularly in the final part. This
gives it a slightly unsavoury flavour but, assuming you’ve gone via the various
worlds to get there, this may not seem too over-bearing in the way that it did
in BNC. A big element of PD-E FFs is
his inclusion of unique and original creatures and there are none as unique as
those found in SS as, given that you
jump through dimensions as well as time, literally anything is possible, be it
variations on fantasy fare, futuristic ideas, horror imagery, and some stuff
that is just wacky fun, but it all adds to the variety and inventiveness on
show here. What Darvill-Evans also does very well in his books is laying on the
atmosphere thickly with long explanatory sections and, particularly in-depth descriptions
of creatures and locations that are genuinely believable in their detail, in
spite of the bizarreness of it all. An interesting added element of SS, though, is the way that some
material is truncated for the sake of pacing and avoidance of digression. For
example, you are often told that you walk for hours to get to places which must
make some locations pretty featureless, but it does add to the effect nicely.
Also, unlike some FFs, certain moments of peril are presented efficiently such
as an electric staircase that requires you to first decide which step is safest
but then, rather than just repeating itself over and over in a bid to reduce
your Stamina, the book decides that you have cracked the puzzle and lets you
literally skip the rest. There could have been some extra challenge included in
this part, but it does avoid too much focus on minutiae when you are really
supposed to be exploring the Aleph’s possibilities, so I’m happy with this as
it is.

Everything
about this book is undeniably bizarre and Tony Hough’s very varied and weird
internal artwork (with more than a hint of Whovian influence to be seen in
places) is the perfect accompaniment to your brain’s attempts at getting your
head around it all. It’s not necessary to have every slight detail presented
graphically, but there is just enough of the main moments (every opening
arrival section for each world has a picture, for example) for you to be able
to switch between the worlds effectively. As for Ian Miller’s hideous cover, it
is just that (hideous and garish) but it does present a major plot element so
there is some saving grace to it.

Spectral Stalkers is a bonkers, but highly original and
thoroughly enjoyable gamebook. It is unbalanced in that the less interesting
second section is as long as the world-hopping part, is very very easy to beat,
but its one-of-a-kind construction allows for ample re-play possibilities, and
it is really good to find a FF book with as many paths through to success as
there are possible combinations of routes. The lack of either combat or
item-hunting may not be to everyone’s taste but there are so many things going
for this book that it is hard not to recommend it. Almost, but not quite,
brilliant, but unquestionably a tour de force of imagination and gamebook design.
Well worth playing if you are looking for an antidote to the more traditional
FF fare, plus it mixes fantasy and Sci-Fi in a fun way that few 100% Sci-Fi
gamebooks ever could, whilst still being a Titan-centric entry. It probably makes
rather more sense if you are off your tits, but who cares when there is this
much fun to be had!

Unlikely as it is that the Stalkers do catch you, surviving if it should happen is even more improbable. Even if the Stamina loss doesn't kill you, there's no chance of getting any healing (you can only eat when the book says you can, so Provisions won't help), and capture by the Stalkers leads straight to the 'roll under your Stamina on 6 dice or die' test. Frankly, unless your dice only ever roll ones, you'd have better odds against Razaak.

There's a fan-written 917 paragraph sequel already out there, but it's in French (Les Portes du Daleth). I have a copy and might do an English translation some time. Ditto, the French-only 1000 section sequel to Scorpion Swamp.

It could take a while to get the stylistic nuances etc right without losing the feel of the French originals though.

To me this is a great book. You really have to consider every choice and the way you can beat the final boss by outwitting him is really cool. Even after I completed it I wanted to go back to see every world. Awesome!